Alex Barron

2025 Wrapped: Building Decarb Edition Building Decarbonization Coalition's annual look back at the milestones, momentum, and accomplishments of the nationwide movement in 2025.

🎁 BDC’s 2025 Wrapped: Building Decarb Edition looks back at a year during which it became clear that America can make energy more affordable with modern, energy-efficient all-electric buildings: bit.ly/4iCTpII #EnergySky #BuildingDecarb #HeatPump #EnergyAffordability #ClimateSky #GreenSky

What is Geo-Exchange? As part of Princeton University's goal to achieve climate neutrality by 2046, we are advancing our use of geo-exchange technology. Investing in geo-exchange projects, with enough capacity to serve the...

Also this story came in an email entitled "Geothermal goes Ivy League" which suggests that maybe the editors weren't familiar with Princeton's work:
facilities.princeton.edu/news/what-ge...

Cornell’s deep-down and rocky quest to unlock geothermal for New York The university is drilling for geothermal energy to directly warm its campus upstate. The system could curb emissions without straining the grid.

Delighted to see some reporting on Cornell's Earth Source Heat project to decarbonize their campus. I would have loved to see some #'s on how much electricity they plan to save with this approach. Regular GSHPs are pretty efficient.
🔌💡

www.canarymedia.com/articles/geo...

“I’d have no problem releasing the video”

“I didn’t say that, you said that. Fake news.”

5 days apart 😬

(From @therecount.com )

Trump’s Own Mortgages Match His Description of Mortgage Fraud, Records Reveal The Trump administration has argued that Fed board member Lisa Cook may have committed mortgage fraud by declaring more than one primary residence on her loans. We found Trump once did the very thing he called “deceitful and potentially criminal.”

NEW: The Trump administration has argued that Fed board member Lisa Cook may have committed mortgage fraud by declaring more than one primary residence on her loans.

We found that Trump once did the very thing he claimed could be a crime.

“Dad, we made so many people happy”

The mostly true recounting of crashing a holiday parade without Imperial authority.

@jeffsseidman.bsky.social @jayturner.bsky.social for teaching purposes. @alexkgellis.bsky.social for practice purposes.

Transportation-climate-urbanism wonks! cool new tool alert!🚨 @georgetownclimate.bsky.social have just put out TEA-CART for estimating the climate benefits of transportation spending. Well worth checking out. 🔌💡 (thanks @jabradbury.bsky.social!)
www.georgetownclimate.org/blog/tea-car...

Eggs, Lies and Gasoline The unbearable lightweightness of being Kevin Hassett

"Was Hassett lying, or just unaware of basic facts? Neither is what you want to see in a man who may soon be overseeing monetary policy."

paulkrugman.substack.com/p/eggs-gas-a...

Fossil-fuel billionaires bought up millions of shares after meeting with top Trump officials Co-founders’ acquisition of Venture Global shares before key permit granted draws scrutiny as pair deny wrongdoing

By me and @andy-rowell.bsky.social
Two fossil-fuel billionaires with close ties to Donald Trump bought millions of shares in the company they co-founded just days after a meeting with senior White House officials, who then issued them key regulatory permit
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

BREAKING: Donner Resigns as Co-Chair of Canada’s Net-Zero Advisory Body University of British Columbia climate scientist Simon Donner has resigned as co-chair of Canada’s Net-Zero Advisory Body (NZAB).

This resignation is worth noting. @simondonner.bsky.social is a man of impeccable integrity. If he is saying the process, and the politics, is compromised and broken, that does not bode well for climate action in Carney's Canada.
www.theenergymix.com/breaking-don...

The Cost of Climate - The American Prospect Extreme weather and changes in seasonal patterns are fundamentally altering the landscape, in cities and in farming communities. You’re going to pay for it.

The latest in our series on drivers of the affordability crisis: climate change.
Too often we neglect how weather patterns affect crop yields, how hurricanes and floods raise the cost of everything from food to water, how colony collapse makes things more expensive. @gurleygg.bsky.social reports.

Yesterday, the Deportation Data Project posted new FOIA data on ICE arrests through October 15 and it’s staggering how much it instantly disproves every claim the Trump admin has made about targeting “criminals” during its splashy arrest operations.

Here’s arrests in Illinois since April.

Zillow’s climate risk reversal looks like a setback. It’s really a wake‑up call. When private models sow confusion, it’s a flashing warning sign that Washington needs to fix federal flood maps,

Zillow’s climate score rollback is a wake-up call: build open, future‑conditions federal flood maps -- gold‑standard, trustworthy data for building codes, mortgages, and our future. Column today: open.substack.com/pub/susanpcr...

Great to see @ucirvinemedschool.bsky.social showing that an all-electric hospital is possible. #electrifyeverything 🔌💡

newuniversity.org/2025/11/03/u...

Elsevier and Springer Nature had profit margins in 2023 that rival those of large tech companies.

Open access publication fees for some of the biggest publishers (Range is $200 to $12290)

My students and average people are often surprised to learn that academics pay a fee to publish a open-access paper in a journal, and _always_ surprised to learn that those fees can be as high as $12000 USD. #acadsky

danielroelfs.com/posts/the-mo... @danielroelfs.com

Great culture can save lives. Literally.

Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

Sustainability Loan Options MySolar Loans For the purchase and installation of solar electric systems. Low-interest loans that will not tie up the equity in your home Up to $100,000 and 240 month terms No closing costs HEAT loans For the installation of qualifying, energy-efficient home improvements. Through MassSave® 0% APR Bicycle Loans For the purchase of a bicycle as a means of alternative transportation. 3.9% APR for standard Bicycles Short Term Exclusive 0% financing for Quadrini Electric Bicycles Energy & Fuel Conservation Loans Invest in energy efficient appliances, or other fuel-saving home improvements. 0% Farm Share Loan Support local farms, and enjoy great local food. https://umassfive.coop/personal/loans/sustainability

My local credit union has a whole fact sheet just for sustainability loans. Loans for solar, heat pumps/weatherization (0% interest!), efficient appliances, bikes (0% for local ebikes!), and farm shares. A great example of what banks can be with leadership and good state policy.

Overestimated natural biological nitrogen fixation translates to an exaggerated CO2 fertilization effect in Earth system models | PNAS CO2 fertilization of the terrestrial biosphere is limited by nitrogen. Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is the dominant natural nitrogen source t...

New study in PNAS showing that climate models overestimate CO2 fertilization by about 10% because they don't capture nitrogen fixation accurately. What's wild about this paper for me is that we were talking about this potential issue when I was in grad school in 2005.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

YouTube video by PBS NewsHour How artificial intelligence is reshaping college for students and professors

You can add this @pbsnews.org piece to the growing amount of media that talks about the challenges (of teaching) with LLMs widely available, but then lumps them into a AI bucket with machine learning tools that people are using productively for research.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbCQ...

70 years ago today, Rosa Parks became a legend

Tired after a long day at work & fed up with the injustice of it all, one day she sat on a ‘whites-only’ bus seat and, when asked to move, decided on the spot to refuse

She was arrested, and her courage sparked an uprising

Or so the story goes

🧵1/

Trump’s EPA Is Undermining Its Own Scientists Amid a historic pandemic, the agency is moving forward on what experts consider dangerously weak air quality standards.

If you are wondering about the standard this would kick us back to: www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

"EPA estimated that the [rule] would prevent 4,500 premature deaths and 290,000 lost workdays by 2032" Just your reminder that the Clean Air Act requires standards to be protective of public health with an adequate margin of safety - that is based on what protects the public.

Wild paper: "insights into how one of the key actors of the 2007–2008 financial crisis is beginning to lay the epistemic groundwork for future economic crises and inequalities in and between cities, this time as they relate to climate change impacts...."

The big number 2,080 That’s the number of Honda CR-Vs stolen in Canada last year. Yes, hidden in the list of Canada’s most-stolen vehicles released by Équité Association is a surefire way to ensure thieves leave your car alone. There are the obvious steps you can take, like parking in a garage, using anti-theft technology, and, um, locking the doors. But the best thing you can do to thwart criminals, save on gas, and breathe easier: Go electric. Since there’s very little charging infrastructure in the overseas markets where Canada’s stolen vehicles end up, EVs are generally left alone. In the last year with data available, only a single Chevy Volt went missing, making it Canada’s least-stolen vehicle.

Anyone know if U.S. car thefts are lower (proportionally) for EVs? 🔌💡

From Benjamin Errett at the Toronto Star (11/21/25)

Comments to the Environmental Protection Agency on the Phasedown of Hydrofluorocarbons In October, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed changes to a 2023 regulation that limited the use of hydroflurocarbons in certain sectors. Hydrofluorocarbons are potent greenhouse gases used ...

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) can be hundreds to thousands of times more damaging to the #climate than carbon dioxide.

EPA recently proposed rolling back or delaying restrictions on certain HFC uses, but the proposal contains legal flaws. We explain in new comments.

policyintegrity.org/projects/upd...

A Trump Overhaul of the Energy Dept. Breaks Up Clean Energy Offices

A tremendous own goal for the US to be breaking up offices in the Department of Energy that had bipartisan support and that stood to help the US compete in industries of the future.

@bradplumer.bsky.social has the RIP for MESC, OCED, and LPO.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/c...

Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪

If you care about politics that works for non-billionaires, I highly encourage you to read this story about the 140-fold (>$1B in a year) increase in political donations from the wealthiest Americans.

wapo.st/4ipXaBd (gift link)

Where's someone making fun socks decorated with a building and heat pump at the calf/ankle and a geothermal well going down to the toes? Asking for a friend...